1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus and a control method therefor, and more particularly, to an image capturing apparatus having the capability to add location information to a captured image, and a control method for the image capturing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a growing number of electronic devices have the ability to add location information to a captured image. For example, camera phones and digital cameras that have a built-in global positioning system (GPS) can add location information to a captured image during image capture. In addition, using a device that records time and location information at predetermined intervals (a GPS logger) it is also possible to add location information to a captured image by correlating the image capture time of the captured image and the time recorded by the GPS logger.
At present, when it is common to put images that individuals have captured on their blogs or home pages, publicizing images to which location information has been added poses problems of privacy. For example, not only does information such as where the photographer was and when become available, but if, for example, the image is one that was captured at the home of an acquaintance, it is also possible to identify the location of that acquaintance's home.
Conventionally, in terms of privacy protection, there is an image capturing apparatus that enables the range of people who can access a captured image during image capture to be set (for example, only the photographer, family, friends, etc.) and the range of publication restricted (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-235239). In addition, a digital camera that deletes additional information of a captured image when the captured image is transmitted over a communication network is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-343627.
The configuration of the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-235239 is one that sets the people who can access the image, and requires that a decision be made in advance for each person as to which sort of access level they should belong. Then, the level of publication for controlling whether to publicize or not must be decided for each image. In this case, it is necessary to perform each and every one of these operations, thus complicating the setting operation. In addition, the configuration described above is one that restricts the people who have access and deletes additional information including location information during transmission of the image, which means that the location information remains recorded on the original captured image. This means that if, for example, the captured image is leaked through a third party to whom access is permitted, or the original captured image is accidentally publicized by mistake, the location information cannot be prevented from being known by the general public.
At the same time, if publication is to be permitted based on the location, for example, the locations of one's friends' homes or one's own home are not to be known, then it becomes necessary to capture images while remaining aware of which locations are permitted to be publicized and which are not, which complicates the setting operation at each and every image capture.